Grays Harbor Democrats respond to request for new Prosecutor candidates

The Grays Harbor Democrats have responded to the request from the County Commissioners this week to bring 3 new nominees for the Prosecutor position, saying that the demands are unreasonable.

In a letter from Chair George Smylie, the attorney says that the request does not follow guidelines.

The Grays Harbor Democrats received a letter from the Commissioners “demanding” another list of three candidates to fill the position of county prosecutor by December 18th. According to Smylie, if that is necessary, it could only happen in January, after giving proper notice to the Precinct Committee Officers.

Commissioner Frank Gordon said that the Democrats needed to bring three new candidates, and that those candidates weren’t planning to run for the office. If they did not, applications would be accepted, forgoing the standard procedure.

According to Smylie, the commissioners cannot ask the Grays Harbor Democrats to hold such a last-minute meeting, forcing them to violate their rules. They say that it is “unreasonable” because they can’t prohibit anyone from running for an office once they’ve been appointed to it.

Smylie also said that the demands are “Unconstitutional because commissioners have no place under the state constitution placing any such demands upon a county party to produce this sort of list.”

In the letter, Smylie wrote “Public safety is not a game. The prosecutor deals with rapists, child molesters and murderers. A placeholder, who may have never prosecuted a felony in their life, should not be used to give your favorite candidate a better shot and comes at a cost to public safety for our citizens.”

Also in the letter, it states Expecting an attorney to be a placeholder, then not run for it, isn’t asking for the best person for the job. It’s begging for mediocrity. “We have provided the county commissioners a list of three qualified candidates. If one declines, you have two more candidates to consider. It is a list to exhaustion.”

The favored candidate submitted by the Democrats was Deputy Prosecutor Katie Svoboda, and is still the top choice as voted on by the Grays Harbor Democratic Party.